Guadalupe Maravilla is the 2021 recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award 

“I am truly honored to receive The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award. The award will enable me to further develop my practice as an artist and provide me with time to continue to create my own path”, says Guadalupe Maravilla upon receiving the award. 

Guadalupe Maravilla (b. 1976, El Salvador) is a visual artist working and residing in Brooklyn, New York. In 1984, aged eight, Maravilla immigrated to the United States as an undocumented, unaccompanied child, fleeing civil war in El Salvador. When as an adult, he was diagnosed with cancer, Maravilla was treated with radiation and chemotherapy alongside his own healing practices and became cancer free. Both events have had an impact on Maravilla’s artistic practice and are present in his artworks. 

 “Guadalupe Maravilla is an extraordinary artist combining political engagement with a powerful spiritual language. His work highlights several of the great challenges facing our society today,” says Tone Hansen, Director of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. 

The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award presents 100,000 USD in prize money to a distinguished artist whose work will inspire and motivate future generations to active participation and social responsibility.  

Presented bi-annually, The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award is intended to mark a significant milestone in an artist's career and represents a financial commitment that places the art award among the most significant internationally.  

In addition to the prize, there is an acquisition budget for the inclusion of the artist’s work in the Henie Onstad Collection, and the recipient will feature in a dedicated exhibition.  

“It is a particular honor to bring Guadalupe Maravilla’s work to Norway and to present an artist who expresses their social vision with such passion and commitment,” says Paulina Rider Wilhelmsen, a member of Tate iIternational Council and one of the founders of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award. 

When Guadalupe Maravilla immigrated alone to the United States from El Salvador, he formed part of the first wave of undocumented unaccompanied children to come to the U.S. from Central America. Maravilla became a U.S. citizen at 27. In 2016, to honour his undocumented father, who uses Maravilla as his last name, Maravilla changed his birth name from Irvin Morazan to Guadalupe Maravilla.  

Maravilla creates performances, videos, sculptures, and drawings that incorporate his pre-colonial Central American ancestry, personal mythology, and autobiography. Through his multidisciplinary studio practice, Maravilla traces the history of his displacement, interrogating the parallels between pre-Columbian cultures and global border politics.   

For the first time in Europe, a selection of work by the artist will be presented in a solo exhibition at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway as part of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme (LWAAP). The exhibition will open to the audience March 18, and run through August 7, 2022. 

 Guadalupe Maravilla was selected as the recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award by an international jury comprising María Inés Rodríguez, editor of Tropical Papers and Curator At Large at MASP, São Paulo; Michelle Kuo, The Marlene Hess Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, New York; Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of Showroom, London and appointed director of MACBA, Barcelona; Paulina Rider Wilhelmsen, Tate International Council Member and Founder of LWAAP and Wilstar Social Impact, Oslo; Caroline Ugelstad, Chief Curator at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo; and Tone Hansen, Director of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and Founder of LWAAP.  

Regarding his selection, the jury stated: 

“Guadalupe Maravilla’s interdisciplinary practice constantly refers to his experiences of exile and illness, migration and healing, identity and displacement.  

Yet Maravilla’s work is also far more than his life. Building on personal narratives but venturing far afield into pre-Columbian mythologies, collective memory, geopolitical history, and material culture, the artist constructs artworks that act. His sculptures and elaborate constructions are also performative tools; he collaborates with others to create interactive wall drawings; he has choreographed a motorcycle gang chorus and crossed the Rio Grande using one of his artworks as a flotation device.  

When New York became one of the epicenters of the corona virus pandemic, Maravilla organised mutual aid work across the city supporting undocumented and immigrant communities with food and money.” 

Guadalupe Maravilla is the second recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award, which was inaugurated in London, U.K., in 2019, with Otobong Nkanga as its first recipient. Her work was presented in a solo exhibition at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway in 2020–2021. 

Solo exhibition:  

March 18–August 7, 2022, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway  

Opening ceremony: 

Thursday, March 17, 2022, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway 

Press preview:
Wednesday, March 16, 10am-12, 2022, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway 

About the artist 

Guadalupe Maravilla is Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, having received his MFA from Hunter College and his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. A solo exhibition, “Portals” was on view at ICA Miami in 2019, and in 2021 he presented the solo exhibition “Planeta Abuelx” at Socrates Sculpture Park, also offering a series of healing sound baths. His work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Nicaragua Biennial, Managua; and El Museo del Barrio, among other venues. He is a Guggenheim Fellow.  

  Awards and fellowships include Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship 2019, Soros Fellowship: Art Migration and Public Space 2019, Map Fund Grant 2019, Creative Capital Grant 2016, Franklin Furnace 2018, Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist Grant 2016, Art Matters Grant 2013, Art Matters Fellowship 2017, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship 2018, Dedalus Foundation Grant 2013 and The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Award 2003. Residencies include LMCC Workspace, SOMA, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Drawing Center Open Sessions. 

 

About The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme

The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme is a partnership between the Lise and Arne Wilhelmsen family and the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. It was established in order to continue and honour Lise Wilhelmsen’s (1936–2019) commitment to the visual arts. The family’s commitment with the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter is confirmed for the next 16 editions, spanning 32 years, with the intention of a further extension. 

 

Contact information: 

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter: Martine Hoff Jensen, mhj@hok.no +47 99520640
Pickles PR: Alfonso Cabello, alfonso@picklespr.com, +34 687394056